Edward Fitzpatrick: State House events to put focus on inequality, poverty

The White House and the Vatican have placed renewed emphasis on inequality and poverty. And on Wednesday, as the nation marks the fiftieth anniversary of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s “war on poverty”...

The White House and the Vatican have placed renewed emphasis on inequality and poverty. And on Wednesday, as the nation marks the fiftieth anniversary of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s “war on poverty” speech, back-to-back events will bring poverty and inequality into sharp focus at the State House.

The Rhode Island Interfaith Coalition to Reduce Poverty will hold its sixth annual vigil at 3 p.m. in the rotunda. And the film “Inequality for All,” which examines U.S. income inequality, will be shown to legislators in the House lounge at about 4:30 p.m.

The vigil is a powerful event, in which faith leaders stand beneath the marble dome, reading aloud the names of elected officials, urging them to remember the poor, the children, the homeless.

“The whole purpose is to raise the issue of poverty on the public agenda and make it a higher priority,” said the Rev. Donald C. Anderson, executive minister of the Rhode Island State Council of Churches. “Often it gets lip service, but many times it doesn’t get beyond that. So we want to make sure it is on people’s agenda on the fiftieth anniversary of the war on poverty.”

The vigil will go beyond generalities, addressing bills to be introduced in the legislative session that starts Tuesday. For example, the coalition will support a proposal to provide $3 million for rental assistance and $250,000 to expand homeless shelters in the winter, Anderson said.

And the coalition will continue pressing to slash the annualized interest rate charged by payday lenders from 260 percent to 36 percent. Payday loans of up to $500 are intended to be paid in full in two weeks, but critics say the loans can leave borrowers in a debt trap. House Speaker Gordon D. Fox has said he’d like to see a compromise, noting Colorado caps those interest rates at 45 percent. Anderson said, “It’s good that it’s on the speaker’s mind, and we hope this is the year we get payday lending reform.”

Once again, it will be interesting to see if Governor Chafee and Bishop Thomas J. Tobin attend. The two have clashed over social issues, but the vigil gives them a chance to stand together against poverty in a state tied for the highest unemployment rate. To his credit, Chafee attended last year’s vigil. The bishop did not.

After the vigil ends, Fox and Senate President M. Teresa Paiva Weed will host a showing of “Inequality for All,” a documentary narrated by Clinton administration labor secretary Robert Reich. The Economic Progress Institute and other groups showed the film in October, and now it’s is being offered to state legislatures around the country to mark the “war on poverty” anniversary.

“Progress has been made and we should continue waging the war,” institute executive director Kate Brewster said. “Far too many people are still struggling, especially in Rhode Island.” So, while the state’s minimum wage just rose to $8 per hour, she called for increasing it to at least $10. And she said, “We have to make education, not tax breaks, the cornerstone of our state’s economic development strategy.”

Others contend the “war on poverty” has failed or is using the wrong weapons. And the payday and minimum-wage proposals are bound to face battles. But 50 years after LBJ’s speech, we must find common ground to pull our fellow citizens out of poverty.